title: A life history view of mutualistic viral symbioses: quantity or quality for cooperation?
abstract: Mutualistic symbioses between viruses and their hosts do not employ a straightforward rule by viral genome characteristics, transmission mechanisms or host genotypes. In this review we propose that reproduction rates and environmental carrying capacity of hosts may play a major role in maintaining the mutualism. Depending on how host life history shifts following establishment of the symbiosis, a symbiosis can be classified as quality-selected mutualism or quantity-selected mutualism. Quality-selected mutualism is described with modified Lotka-Volterra models. Both our models and previous empirical examples support the hypothesis that quality-selected mutualism can reach stable equilibrium under certain conditions. Quantity-selected mutualism is rare and is not supported by our model. With increasing attention to mutualistic viral ecology, we will have a better understanding of how viruses drive evolution.
authors.affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Marilyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Roossinck
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013559:Symbiosis; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena